"Ten years of studying hard in a cold window, how happy it will be to be named on the gold medal list!"
Late winter.
Beijing, Imperial College. The Crown Prince of the Imperial Palace was here to visit the scholars who went to Beijing to take the exams, and summoned some representatives of the scholars. When talking about the boycott of exams in Henan, the prince bluntly said that everyone was studying hard in the cold window, but they stopped taking the exams because of things, so
Wouldn't it mean that he would give up his own fame and the high hopes of his family?
"Stop taking exams means giving up, and being on the battlefield means deserting. Don't you think about it? Isn't this just hurting the hearts of your parents, wives, and children? Isn't this just a moment of confusion and a big mistake?"
Although the prince is young, only sixteen after the Chinese New Year, when facing these experienced people who are about thirty years old on average, he is able to get straight to the core essence, which is interests.
Scholars talk a lot about benevolence, justice and morality, but in fact they are all about profit.
No matter emperors, generals, or traffickers and pawns, they are all inseparable from profit. What's more, since the Ming Dynasty, scholars have been even more crazy about pursuing profit.
Li Shimin stood on the tower of Chang'an City, looking at the scholars who came to Beijing to take the exam. He once said a classic saying, From now on, all the heroes in the world will be among us.
"Everything His Royal Highness the Prince said is correct, but late students still have to ask, like we in Henan, even if you get a meritorious degree, what's the use?"
A Henan Juren stood up and asked.
Prince Hongjia looked at this man. His hair was half white. He looked to be at least fifty years old, but he was still just a civil servant. But at this age, he was not considered old. The so-called fifty-young Jinshi had been in the Ming Dynasty for nearly three hundred years.
Those admitted as Jinshi are on average thirty or forty years old.
There are even people in their sixties or seventies who are still taking the scholar examination.
"Are you from Henan?"
"I was born late to Liu Yuanzhan, a member of the Xinxiang Judicial Committee in Weihui Prefecture, Henan Province. He won the imperial examination in the first year of Chongzhen. After that, he was displaced by war and famine. In the blink of an eye, he was already fifty years old. It is really embarrassing."
The motivation of scholars in the Ming Dynasty who passed the imperial examination.
In the past, they knew very well how much benefit they could bring by passing the imperial examinations at all levels and becoming a scholar, a scholar, or a scholar after being admitted. They knew that they could become a scholar-official class, a true aristocrat who was superior to others.
However, since Emperor Shaotian raised his army, many of the privileges of scholars have been deprived of, and their interests have continued to suffer. After the gentry all paid for themselves, Henan began to work with the gentry as errands, and even students were not allowed to take over the lawsuits. This led to the student strike.
.
The prince said that scholars should not give up the exams and should not become deserters. He also said that the imperial examinations would benefit from fame and fame, but now the benefits are no longer and the court is looking down on them as scholars.
Zhu Hongjia's books are definitely not read as much as these Juzi people. The oldest of these people is in their sixties, the youngest is in their twenties, and they are generally in their thirties and forties. Anyone who has not studied hard for many years in a humble age and can become a Juzi is already
He has defeated 99% of the scholars in the world.
Chen Qianfu wanted to answer for the prince, but the prince coughed and took the initiative to answer.
"What is fame? I once asked your Majesty, and he said that merit means making contributions to the country, and fame means being remembered in history. If you study, you will only think about how to make more money and land, and even think about exploiting the people and evading taxes.
, or even taking over lawsuits and arrogating rural music, that means you are an official, and you are also a corrupt official. Where is the merit and reputation? "
Zhu Hongjia directly moved out of the emperor, first stood on the moral high ground, and then counterattacked fiercely from a high position, taking control of the right to speak as soon as he opened his mouth.
In negotiations, it is crucial to have the right to speak, just like taking the initiative in a war.
The prince's words were so righteous that no scholar could publicly refute them. Although they may have thought so in their hearts, they could not say it in public.
Liu Yuanzhan immediately explained, "That's not what we meant. We can't stand Master Chen's mistreatment of scholars!"
Zhu Hongjia did not refute this time, but became an attitude of listening with an open mind, allowing the representatives of the scholars to express their opinions, and said, "I am here today, and I also want to hear everyone's opinions with my own ears. Everyone is welcome."
He is the proud son of the country's scholars. Once he is named on the golden list, he will become an official of the imperial court. If you have anything to say, he will listen carefully and write down the answers to the saint."
Liu Yuanzhan then said that Chen Qianfu, as the governor, was promoting bad governance in the Central Plains. He did not dare to criticize the emperor's policies. After all, Zheng Sanjun, Hou Xun and Ding Qirui had all been sentenced to death. The big man who implicated tens of thousands of people was destined to die. So he only
Can we talk about some of Chen Qianfu’s local policies in Henan?
For example, the imperial court sent silver to pay for labor, and then divided the grain into acres, and the gentry all paid the grain. However, now Chen Qianfu asked everyone to pay grain for labor according to the mu, but the silver they gave was less than one-third of the market price.
"I also invited Governor Chen here today. Governor Chen will explain everyone's problems to me in person."
How could Chen Qianfu be afraid of these candidates? He answered calmly, "Since the restoration of the saint's army, we have implemented a benevolent government, so we have sent money to serve as servants to relieve the burden of more than two hundred years of service. This benevolent government is not only tolerant to ordinary people, but also to
For all scholars and officials, they are one and no longer need to bear the burden of errands. It is a great benevolent government."
"Furthermore, the saint was considerate of the people. He only took the most basic local expenses for local servants and set them as a quota, and then spread them into the fields and combined them with the same fixed land tax. There was already an oracle and he would never increase the amount.
Endowment."
"No tax will be added, and no dingyin will be added. However, this fixed dingyin is only enough for the daily basic expenses of the local area during ordinary peace years. Not to mention disaster relief, even building rivers and water conservancy, etc. are not included. These are not included.
For insufficient expenses, the saint subsidizes the local government from industrial and commercial taxes."
"Just now, Liu Juren from Xinxiang said that he was elected in the first year of Chongzhen, and it has been more than 20 years now. You are fifty years old this year, and you have experienced the Wanli period. Tell yourselves about the benevolent government of Shaotian, a saint today.
, just for this police officer, isn’t Ding Yin not much less than before?”
"In the past, although the local land tax was fixed, the increase was variable. Local police officers were paid both in exchange for money and as labor servants. What was the real burden?"
Liu Yuanzhan is fifty years old. He has been a judge for more than 20 years. Although he is considered a privileged class, since the beginning of the Chongzhen period, the current situation has been turbulent and local officials have become corrupt. Even if he is a judge, he still has various kinds of apportionment.
Even if the donation can be exempted or avoided, it is just an exemption from the regular tax, and the apportionment is often unavoidable. In those years, the additional levy, apportionment, fire consumption, etc. were several times the regular tax.
However, Chen Qianfu continued to directly produce a piece of data, which was the actual tax burden of the Wanli, Tianqi, Chongzhen and Shaotian dynasties in Xinxiang County, Weihui Prefecture, Henan Province. Later, the Hongguang period, Li Zicheng, Manchu and other dynasties were added.
Qing control and the actual burden of control in Tuzhai.
Every statistic is very astonishing. Not only is it so high, it’s even so high that I don’t know what year it has been.
Therefore, it has long been a mess, and no one can solve it, so it has been searched and looted again and again. Local officials have to give rides to collect money, and bandits and thieves come to rob from time to time.
In comparison, even during the Wanli period, which was known as the Taiping Period, the taxes were much higher than they are now. Even for a family that promoted people to Jinshi, the actual burden was much higher than it is now.
The so-called exemption for the gentry, even if they use various means such as sending donations in their names, the final burden will still be much higher than it is now.
After all, the wool has to come from the sheep.
"Let me talk about repairing the river again. Most of us Henan people live on both sides of the Yellow River. Now the Yellow River has changed its course, and the southeast of Henan is no longer along the river. In the past, the Yellow River was repaired every year, and workers were sent to work every year.
, and even have to spend money to repair the river. The same is to repair the river, but the repairs are still affected by floods every year. Major and minor disasters continue. The money is not spent less, and the hardship is not less, but it is just to feed those corrupt officials.
The dirty official’s private pocket.”
"Now that our court is building the river, it has not collected any more money from the people of Henan to build the river. Even the small amount of silver used for the silver service is not included in the money for building the river. Why? Is it because the court is negligent? No, it is.
The sage's special decree stated that the money for the construction of the Yellow River should be uniformly allocated by the imperial court and planned and managed uniformly. The people along the river could not all bear it, otherwise they would not be able to bear it.
Therefore, even though we are all residents of prefectures and counties along the Yellow River, the Dingyin we pay does not include the commission silver for river construction, nor the commission silver for the post station. Many of the original commission credits have been canceled and will not be collected.
The imperial court allocated money from the industrial and commercial tariffs in the national treasury to the localities.
How much is our Ding Yin? Is it different from those in Jiangxi, Hebei, Shandong or even Shaanxi and Gansu? No, now that the whole country is unified, the land tax is two dou per mu, or it is converted into a standard tax per mu. The actual tax rate is fifteen and one tax per mu.
The dingyin is also unified across the country. The tax per mu is two liters per mu, and the fire consumption is 10%. The land tax is dingyin plus the fire consumption. The national unified price is two dou per mu, four liters and two.
Is it high?
There are no other additional levies, no other floating charges, no more fire costs and no higher costs, and no other errands, donations, etc., is it high?
In order to build the river, the imperial court allocated funds several times and even issued several river-building bonds. I guess some of you have bought them. The interest rates are pretty good, so I bought a lot.
I have calculated that compared with before, the burden on the local people has actually dropped several times, and even the burden on the gentry and landlords has dropped several times."
What Chen Qianfu said is all solid data, and it is all true.
"Although all of you are from Shannan and Haibei and not all from Henan, you all know that what I said is true. To be honest, in fact, the land tax and dingyin currently collected by the court are very low, especially the dingyin.
In terms of silver, the imperial court reserved all the money for local government expenditures, but in fact it was not enough for every government office. The imperial court also reserved a large part of the land tax for local government agencies at all levels, but even with these, it was just barely enough.
expenditure.
For river construction, disaster relief, even road construction, city construction, water conservancy, etc., the court still needs to allocate funds from the treasury, which are subsidized by special taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, customs duties, etc. "
"Fellow scholars, most of my families are landowners. You all know that what I say is true. Your burden now is actually several times lighter than before, and the court is still providing subsidies to protect you. Compared with
Before you got up, didn't you have an account in your mind?"
